Thaddeus Young had a bit of a disappointing first national showing at the college level participating in the Maui Invitational. He made a solid contribution to the Georgia Tech effort, but didn’t look like quite the same athlete we saw explode in the Jordan All-American Classic this summer. He’s not showing nearly the same explosiveness with his first step off the dribble, and after he was temporarily pulled out of the first game against Purdue with knee troubles, it was reported that he is struggling with tendonitis.

Young looked like he was having some troubles adapting to the college game, looking as if he’s yet to find his niche on his new team. He clearly has not stepped into the go-to role yet as many expected him to, but things could change as he becomes more comfortable. Young was getting his shot attempts in a variety of ways; he was posting up, getting offensive rebounds, taking defenders off the dribble, and shooting outside jumpers. He looked most comfortable posting up and attacking the boards, mainly because his outside shot wasn’t falling and his dribble-drive game was not very effective due to his lack of explosiveness. Young’s build definitely projects him as a swingman at the next level, and he himself has said that’s what he’s building his game to be, but he may continue to do most of his scoring inside until he adjusts the rest of his game.

Young had some turnovers troubles and made some bad decisions over the course of the tournament, occasionally pulling up for contested outside jumpers he had trouble consistently knocking down. He has good form on his shot, but he needs to pick his spots better, focusing more on keeping his feet underneath him, not shooting with a hand in his face, and maintaining proper balance during his shot. On his dribble-drive game, Young has a tendency to not protect the ball well, leaving him prone to getting the ball poked away, which further magnified some of his struggles creating high-percentage shots taking defenders off the dribble.

For all of Young’s troubles, he still had a pretty good showing, and definitely did some good things. He did have some good scores in the lane, got to the free-throw line, attacked the glass, and did a good job using various combinations of fakes and spins to score in the post. He also did a good job running the floor and scoring in transition.

As Young becomes more acclimated to the college game and his teammates get a better feel for where he’s most comfortable with the ball, he should start having more consistent performances and hopefully coming into the role of go-to scorer. One just has to hope that his explosiveness and athleticism return to the levels they were at in the summer, as much of his game is predicated around those abilities. It will be interesting to see how Young continues to adapt to the college game, and if his explosiveness returns.

Before the season started we talked about the type of pressure that will be on Josh McRoberts’ shoulders after deciding to pass up a likely spot in the lottery in favor of staying another year at Duke. He’s expected to be the go-to guy of a very young Duke team that is always a focal point of the national spotlight, and to add insult to injury, he missed most of the summer after undergoing surgery on his back.

So far, the early results have not looked good for McRoberts. Gone is a good deal of the outstanding athleticism that made him such an intriguing prospect coming out of high school, and in return we find a tentative player who is clearly struggling to produce points consistently in the post. Without the terrific quickness and explosiveness he showed last year and beyond--he’s still trying to recover as he regains his form coming off surgery-- McRoberts looks fairly soft trying to finish plays in the paint, lumbering up and down the floor and not getting off the ground quite as quickly as he used to. He’s avoiding contact and looking very predictable with his post moves, not rebounding well at all and playing very average defense on players that have no business scoring on him.

On the positive side, McRoberts has done a good job facing the basket from the high post. His passing skills look as good as ever, and he’s doing a very nice job using his ball-handling skills with either hand to create shots for himself, something we didn’t seem much of at all last season. He looked like he really did want to help carry his team’s offense against Marquette, but without his explosiveness, things are much tougher on him. It’s quite possible that he just isn’t in the type of shape he needs to be in after missing such a huge part of the summer recovering from surgery, so it’s certainly too early to completely write him off just yet. We still have a long season ahead of us, but judging off what we’ve seen so far, he’s not nearly as intriguing as he was 5 months ago.

Rashawn Terry displayed some of the tools that make him a nice small forward prospect down the road, but he was inconsistent throughout the Preseason NIT tournament. Most of his points he did score came off cuts to the basket for easy feeds to show off his athleticism, as well as mid-range jumpers off screens. Terry also rebounded the ball very well against Tennessee, despite not doing much in this area against Gonzaga. On defense, he played well for the most part and did so guarding both small and power forwards. He registered 3 blocked shots against the Vols, and appears to be focused on taking advantage of potential he has on this side of the ball. Terry’s passing ability looks a little better than last season, though it could still stand to get better.

Terry still needs to improve his ball-handling ability, as he turned the ball over 5 times against Tennessee. He is struggling with his perimeter shot right now, though he has taken only 9 three point attempts this season, making just 2. Terry also appears to still struggle with his touch around the hoop, and he missed a few easy shots inside in different NIT. games. He will need to learn how to take better advantage of his explosiveness inside when trying to finish, which would allow him to draw more contact and make it easier for him to finish. More than anything, though, you got the sense that Terry was just another guy out there for the Heels, rather than their experienced senior with a national championship underneath his belt and their 2nd leading returning scorer. For big portions of the game he seemed to just float around on the court aimlessly, not looking to inject himself into the game and not really being much of an option in UNC’s offense.

If Terry continues to struggle with his reduced role this year at North Carolina, it will surely affect his already shaky draft stock. He has the opportunity right now to prove that he can be a good role player, and if he can find his spot on the team, it will prove that he is ready for that role at the next level. He needs to realize that he’s no longer playing for an underdog squad that is depleted following the departure of four lottery picks, and begin to take more responsibilities in terms of getting himself involved in the game by doing the little things. It’s still way too early to write him off at this point, but his numbers being down across the board so far, particularly his shooting percentages, is not a good sign for him or the Tar Heels.

Despite entering what is now his third season of college basketball, it still feels like we’ve barely gotten a chance to know D.J. White due to the injury problems he’s endured. What you might remember from his freshman year—a skinny and raw jumping jack who got after the ball like no other—barely seems to apply anymore now that he’s back for good hopefully. White seems to have lost much of his explosiveness from what we can tell early on. He gets very little lift off the ground, is lumbering up and down the floor, and is therefore nowhere near the shot-blocking threat he once was. He’s gained some weight, not all of it of the positive variety—and you can tell that he’s still adjusting to his new proportions as it pertains to his playing style.

In the Preseason NIT White struggled against a very weak Lafayette team, picking up more fouls than minutes played before he was finally unleashed deep in garbage time. Against Butler he looked better, but it couldn’t stop his team from losing to the eventual tournament champions. He displayed a pretty smooth post-game here, utilizing nifty footwork and a soft touch on his fade-away jumper, a la Leon Powe. White’s explosiveness could very well return as he gets back into game shape after barely having played over the past year and a half.

Considering his relative lack of size and the fact that his team just doesn’t seem to be that good this year, he doesn’t look like the same type of prospect he was this past summer. Unless his athleticism returns--and in a big way-- sooner rather than later, White might have to put off his not-so-secret plans of declaring for the draft for another year. From what we’ve been told by people close to the situation, it’s something he’s definitely planning on doing and Indiana is quite aware of it.